CAIRO: A senior Hamas official advised Reuters on Saturday (Could 16) that the chief of the group’s army wing had died, a day after Israel stated that it had carried out airstrikes concentrating on him.
Earlier, witnesses in Gaza Metropolis stated that mosques had introduced Izz al-Din al-Haddad’s “martyrdom”. He’s probably the most senior Hamas official killed by Israel since an October US-backed ceasefire deal that was meant to halt combating in Gaza.
Hamas has not publicly confirmed Haddad’s loss of life.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a joint assertion together with his defence minister on Friday that Haddad had been focused, although they didn’t say if he had been killed.
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz stated Haddad was an architect of the Oct 7, 2023 assaults launched by Hamas militants that precipitated Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
Haddad, who grew to become the group’s army chief in Gaza after Israel’s killing of Mohammad Sinwar in Could 2025, “was answerable for the homicide, abduction, and hurt inflicted on 1000’s of Israeli civilians (and) troopers”, they stated.
Israel and Hamas stay deadlocked in oblique talks to advance US President Donald Trump’s post-war plan for Gaza that’s meant to finish greater than two years of combating.
Medics in Gaza on Friday stated that at the very least seven folks, together with three ladies and a toddler, have been killed and at the very least 50 injured in air strikes concentrating on an residence and a car. It’s not clear if Haddad was one of many useless.
Israel has escalated its assaults in Gaza within the weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran, redirecting its fireplace again on the ruined Palestinian territory the place the army says that Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.
